NBN Voice Services Start To Speak Up

The NBN isn’t just a data network; the eventual aim of the rollout is to replace the copper network that not only provides ADSL (if you’re lucky enough), but also voice services. NBN Co’s announced that it’s fast-tracking automatic user authentication to allow NBN-based VoIP services to roll out more smoothly.

ITNews reports on the move; up until now there have been precious few NBN Voice-only subscribers, but it’s an eventuality the company has to be able to deal with. For now, anyone wanting to directly connect an NBN wire to an ISP’s billing setup has had to do so via a manual XML script; ITNews quotes Internode’s Jim Kellet as stating that

The new platform will use the TR-069 standard to allow devices on a user’s network to directly connect to their provider’s billing solution — no funky XML workarounds required.

The report quotes Ralph Steffers of NBN Co as stating that

“We understand that there will be a number of people who only want a telephone service and that we need to offer quality telephone services while making the transition to fibre as easy and straightforward as possible.”

One of the more interesting features that should come down the wire (pun not intended) with the NBN’s implementation of VoIP is that it should support features not commonly found on current VoIP services, such as backup power and alarm monitoring. [ITNews]